Skip to main content


the annoying thing about doing the hardware and software of a project is that sometimes you want to work on the software part but the hardware part isn't there yet

and you don't want to work on the hardware right now

in reply to Foone🏳️‍⚧️

did some relatively quick 3d print design so I can do hardware soon.

also I think my disk is dying in front of me: I tried to write an 80 track image, and it failed at track 49. I try again, and it fails at track 39

I'm trying again, for science

in reply to Foone🏳️‍⚧️

why doesn't the greaseweazle support external track indicators? do I have to code everything myself?

I want a 2-digit 7 segment display counting up tracks!

in reply to Foone🏳️‍⚧️

I can't work out all the details of either my HOTDOG or HAMBURGER designs, so I'm 3D printing a sort of prototype HAMBOG
in reply to Foone🏳️‍⚧️

which'll hopefully work enough to let me work on the code, while only being a minor nightmare to use
in reply to Foone🏳️‍⚧️

discovered issues in the print of HAMBOG2 that I've fixed in HAMBOG4 but HAMBOG3 was already printing. whoops
in reply to Foone🏳️‍⚧️

so I'm going to specifically leave HAMBOG4 unprinted until I've assembled HAMBOG3 and integrated any lessons I learn from that.

rather than just whacking print as soon as I've yanked HAMBOG3 out of the printer

in reply to Foone🏳️‍⚧️

HAMBOG2 was mainly printed so it wouldn't be completely broken like HAMBOG1 (HAMBOG1 is only partially 3d printed, some of it is tape)

but it had problems I fixed in HAMBOG3, which is printing now.

in reply to Foone🏳️‍⚧️

That's about enough fiddling. HAMBOG4 is pretty good, other than two screw holes going missing in the design process
in reply to Foone🏳️‍⚧️

dang it. trying to power the pi using the GPIO pins (which my UPS supposedly supports) did not work.

and this current layout can't do USB power. So HERE COMES HAMBOG5...

in reply to Foone🏳️‍⚧️

and with a quick pythonscript to test, it's now imaged a disk while on battery power!
in reply to Foone🏳️‍⚧️

For all your portable disk imagine needs! No this is some real retro spy shit.

You've got 10 minutes before the guard comes back to the mainframe room.

You've got to image the floppy containing all of the stolen breakdancing moves before he gets back

it just needs a tape deck too so you can jam out while you image

in reply to Foone🏳️‍⚧️

unexpected failure mode:
I accidentally dropped part of the device into my sharps container
in reply to Foone🏳️‍⚧️

it was just some nylon standoffs but it was exactly the same shape as the takeup needle I was trying to toss
in reply to Foone🏳️‍⚧️

oh god, I didn't check where a brace was after adjusting the position of the pi. it now goes right over the 2 GPIO pins I need to talk to the battery
in reply to Foone🏳️‍⚧️

finally got a ammeter on the power. So right now this thing is idling at 200-250mA (I haven't tried optimizing that yet)
Copying a floppy disk bumps it up to 350-400mA
The total usage indicator says 11mAh after zeroing it and copying a disk
in reply to Foone🏳️‍⚧️

so using the most optimistic estimates, my 10000mAh battery means I could copy 900 disks on battery power
in reply to Foone🏳️‍⚧️

I figured out how some parts can go together and now I have to move approximately 32 screws, each by about 1 centimeter
in reply to Foone🏳️‍⚧️

HAMBOG7 is printing.

and yeah: 3 days later, still mostly fucking with hardware. Someday I'll get back to software...

in reply to Foone🏳️‍⚧️

I added some text to HAMBOG7, to try to remind myself to not over-focus on the little details of a prototype I intend to throw away.
in reply to Foone🏳️‍⚧️

HAMBOG7 was short lived. its only purpose was to teach me that I placed three screwholes at the wrong place.
HAMBOG8 is printing now.
in reply to Foone🏳️‍⚧️

HAMBOG8 was closer but wrong, and I discovered a cable routing problem

HAMBOG9 is printing now

in reply to just Claire again and again

@sif @epithumia
hmm. I'm not sure what a "cheseburger" design would be, but I'll have to figure it out for more portmanteaus.

Hamburger vs Hotdog has to do with how the machine "eats" floppies: hotdog has a drive at the front, hamburger has a drive facing to the right (or left, I suppose)

The names make more sense in my head, but they're also references to designs I haven't actually created yet, so I can't explain them very well

in reply to Foone🏳️‍⚧️

HAMBOG9 works. For the first time, all parts are properly mounted together on this thing.
in reply to just Claire again and again

@sif thanks for the offer but I'm having fun playing with the 3D design. that's a ways off anyway, I'm hoping to shift to software for a while now
in reply to Foone🏳️‍⚧️

Traditionally, this is when you discover a requirements change that needs a redesign...

Looks cool!

in reply to C.

@cazabon hopefully that won't happen for a week or two while I work on software, so I'll at least get some code in place!
@C.
in reply to Foone🏳️‍⚧️

I went to find this GIF in the thread but couldn't locate it, apparently I forgot to post it?
this is when I accidentally added a decal, and it had some interesting behavior
in reply to Foone🏳️‍⚧️

With all this effort expended on hambogs, how much more effort would it have been to just do the original hamburger and hot dog instead?
in reply to Σ(i³) = (Σi)²

@SvenGeier well I'm still probably going to do one of those. HAMBOG is mainly a stopgap so that I have some hardware, no matter how janky or ugly, so I can work on software for now. Eventually that same software will run on a more elegant hamburger/hotdog
in reply to Foone🏳️‍⚧️

@foone, hmm. The only pins which I see there have nothing to do with clothing, and the only clothing-related item is that clothes peg…
in reply to lp0 on fire

@lp0_on_fire oh yeah I call clothespegs clothespins. I don't know if that's a regional thing or my family is just weird
in reply to Foone🏳️‍⚧️

I wonder how much it would cost so ship one clothespin with a finished product 🤔
in reply to Foone🏳️‍⚧️

re: trauma, geeky laserdisc references, thought crime, blade runner

Sensitive content

This entry was edited (2 weeks ago)
in reply to just Claire again and again

re: trauma, geeky laserdisc references, thought crime, blade runner

Sensitive content

in reply to Foone🏳️‍⚧️

I'm having kind of the opposite problem, I want to 3D print something, but the folks that write the software for my bed sensor didn't allow for round beds like mine. I'm pretty sure the fix should be minimal, but to do it myself I'd have to learn enough python to read enough of their code to know where I need to add the functionality, then figure out how to do that (which, as I said, *should* be simple enough, I'm pretty sure I understand what needs to be done at a pseudocode level).
in reply to Nanoraptor

@NanoRaptor And spend the next three months tinkering and chasing bugs in the emulator, instead of doing the software or hardware.... Or is that just me?
in reply to Justin Skists

@jskists in all honesty we're probably going to be doing all that *anyway* in the end....